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About Us
The High-Tech Women Managers Forum was created and founded by Ayala Scope in 2005. The idea for creating the forum resulted from her personal experience of over 10 years as a senior marketing communications manager at several leading high-tech companies and from her familiarity with companies run by her husband, Mr. Arie Scope, the founder and ex-CEO of Microsoft, Israel. The forum currently has over 1,000 members from the high-tech community and from additional sectors in the Israeli industry. It is run by a team of volunteers who strive to promote the forum’s values. Our Vision The forum advocates equality between men and women in the workplace in terms of opportunity, compensation, promotion and performance evaluation based on achievement of goals. Our Goal Improve corporate culture as a means to improving the status of women in the Israeli workplace. Our Way The forum promotes this goal by encouraging general managers of various Israeli companies and local authorities to publicly sign a covenant intended to improve the organizational culture at their organizations. By signing the covenant, the organization commits to support women in the workplace, thus promoting fairness and equal opportunity for both men and women. The forum also encourages and facilitates many networking opportunities to enable its members get to know each other and to build their own personal and business networks.
Organizations Who Have Signed the Covenant
As of today, 39 CEOs & Presidents of Israeli private sector companies, 12 municipalities and 3 international corporations. Over 27,000 employees are now working under the guiding principles of the convenient.
Manamenent Team
Ayala Scope – Chairman Varda Aberbach - General Manager
Shosh Moscona – Operations Manager
Maly Alcoby – Work-Life Balance Consultant Ranit Fink – Technology Manager Anat Levine – Press Relations and Marketing Communications Daphna Ronen – Covenant Implementation Manager Why are we still fighting for equality?
It is true that today many couples share the tasks involved in the day-to-day running of their family and household. However, the bulk of the family’s obligations are still shouldered mostly by women. Women still struggle to get ahead in the workplace to mid- or top-level management positions because of the difficulty in combining an intensive career and a sane family life. A change in the corporate culture in Israel will allow women to participate in the workforce with greater success, boost Israeli’s economy with the influx of smart and capable employees and allow families to enjoy intellectually fulfilled mothers and spouses. What is a “Work-Life Balance”?
The Forum started out as a means to promote women’s status in the Israeli workplace. While doing so, they discovered that an organization cognizant of work-life issues and one that has taken steps to allow its employees to realize this balance has seen these efforts positively impact the company’s success. An employee striving to achieve a positive work-life balance not only promotes their own personal growth but also increases their family’s happiness. Evidentially, the principals upon which the Forum started out apply to both men and women alike. Why a Covenant?
Signing a convent is a positive action that allows companies to volunteer to promote the covenant’s premises, and not adhere to a list of rules and regulations. There is already an existing law promoting equal opportunity in the Israeli workplace but we have seen that corporations are not familiar with the law and it is rarely implemented. The Forum, with the aide of the Covenant allows employers and employees to build trust between them for equal opportunity in the workplace. Why target the high-tech sector?
Technology companies offer the Forum a unique opportunity for affecting change. On one hand, these companies usually demand an unusually high number of work hours per week from all of their employees. On the other hand they are not bound to traditional work models and are willing to consider changes in their organizational culture. The high-tech industry is poised to become the first sector in Israel to change the prevalent organizational behavior and will be the leader in establishing equal opportunity for men and women in the Israeli industry. Why target women managers?
Women managers are ideally poised to affect top-down change in their organizations. They can influence their organizations and are willing to fight for issues that they are passionate about and that they believe in. They are also aware that the very principles advocated by the Forum can lead to a workplace that is more accepting of what is considered feminine management skills: the ability to work as a team to reach mutual goals, high emotional intelligence, listening and communication skills, and above all empathic management. Change in the corporate environment will release women managers from the need to behave as their male counterparts, which, conversely, can come across as “too tough.” Does the Forum advocate affirmative action/reverse discrimination?
The Forum does not strive to encourage employment of women simply because they are women, nor does it advocate preferring a female job applicant over a male one unless their qualifications are identical and the female candidate’s skill set is better than any other candidate. Top managers have always put their corporation’s success as their top priority, and the CEOs who have signed the Forum’s Covenant are no different. They realize that hiring and assimilating women in the workplace is beneficial to the entire workforce and contributes to the success of the entire company. Is there a gender wage gap in the high-tech sector?
Women constitute 52 percent of the Israeli population, yet only 34 percent of the high-tech sector’s workforce. The percentage of female mid- and top-level managers is even lower, and is only 17 percent. Surprising as it may seem, there is an average of 26 percent difference in the wages of men and women in the high-tech sector, which is why one of the Covenant’s three principals is to promote equal compensation for identical positions. What about performance evaluations?
Once performance evaluations derive from actual accomplishments as opposed to hours spent at work and seniority in the organization, individual achievements will drive the organization’s growth. As simple and straightforward as this concept may be, it is surprisingly not widely embraced by the high-tech sector in Israel, where many employees are solely evaluated based on the hours spent at the office. In many companies, hours spent at work signify dedication and commitment, and there is no analysis of what is done or achieved during those hours. Also, in many instances managers choose to consider how late an employee stayed at the office, and not when they arrived or how the time spent at the office was used. Why are meeting times important?
There is a reason that a seemingly insignificant item like setting meeting times is one of the three principles of the Covenant, which recommends that meetings end by 5 PM. This is so all employees can attend the meeting and still end their work day at a reasonable hour. Why do women need exclusive professional networks?
Men, especially men in Israel, are very well connected through many different professional and social networks: special military units such as intelligence and information technology or sports fan clubs such as football and basketball. Women rarely have these support networks and usually deal with professional challenges individually. This is why the Forum has chosen to fill this need, to create and encourage participation of women-only networks that will enable women to get support, advice and professional assistance from other women.
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